While many hobbyists have been focused on the defects in the U.S. Mint’s offering of its 25th anniversary silver American Eagle set, the individual proof silver American Eagle has been declared sold out.

Sales of the 2011 coin ended at the nice round number of 850,000. The Mint did not announce in advance how many coins it would sell.

This compares to the 860,000 that were sold in in 2010.

However, if you add the 100,000 that are contained in the anniversary set, there are 950,000 of the proofs in collector hands. That makes it one of the highest proof Eagle mintages on record.

In 1986 and 2006 the sales totals were over 1 million proofs.

Collectors do love the silver Eagle. It is our equivalent of watching the Morgan dollar program unfold. There were only 28 dates in that series. Eagles have now attained 26 dates of its own. That means the 2013 coins will tie the Morgan series for duration and the 2014 issues will surpass it.

Of course, there is not the variety of mintmarks in the Eagle series that exists in the Morgan series, but there is still a variety. We have “S,” “P” and “W” proofs and this year the “S” uncirculated was added to the mix. There are two reverse proofs, this year’s and the one from 2006. There is even the 2008 variety with the reverse of 2007.

So what’s not to like? The Eagle is a large silver coin, a traditional collector favorite.

Rather than dwell on any current faults, let’s look on the bright side: the Mint did not place the coins in storage at the Treasury for release in 60 or 80 years time.

If you need information on the Morgan series you might consider North American Coins and Prices or Coin Digest. Both are available at www.shopnumismaster.com. Tomorrow there is free shipping on all orders. Use promotion code THANKS11.

About the Author David C. Harper has been a coin collector since 1963. He joined the Krause Publications editorial staff in 1978 and is currently editor of Numismatic News and World Coin News. He also edits two books annually, North American Coins & Prices and Coin Digest. He is the author of the Class of '63 column that runs each week in Numismatic News. His first bylined numismatic article appeared in the June 1971 issue of Coins Magazine and his various Krause Publications assignments included a stint as editor of the magazine 1980-1983. Harper received a bachelor of science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in 1977. He had a double major of journalism and economics.